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Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy’s long-running feud with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management came to a head last week after BLM agents squared off against Bundy and an armed gaggle of self-identifying “patriot” militia-types. After decades of argument and lost court cases, Bundy still refuses to acknowledge the federal government’s claim to vast tracts of Western lands and pay the grazing fees for his cattle. More detail can be found here.

The feds were correct in standing down last week. The situation was spiraling out of hand and the risk of bloodshed was real. Any show of significant force likely would do nothing more than turn Bundy and his supporting militia into martyrs of the far right, which already has concocted a witch’s brew of conspiracy theories for the standoff involving Nevada Sen. Harry Reid, his sons, a Chinese solar company, the BLM and perhaps even the Trilateral Commission.
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Frank Buckles, a West Virginia man who was the last U.S. Veteran of World War I, died this week at the age of 110. GIs from that period were called “doughboys,” the 19th century origins of which are somewhat obscure. Some sources attribute it to the dust that would settle on the troops after a long, hot march, giving them a white and doughy appearance. Others attribute it to the large buttons worn by Civil War soldiers, making them look like gingerbread men. Additional theories point to the way troops baked bread at a campfire, and to the white clay used to polish their belt buckles.

Whatever and wherever it came from is academic, now. The meaning “dough” has taken new meaning in the money-happy politics of the 21st century.